"When she logged on, she was desired—and sexy!—and it began to shape her self-perception. Alone at home, she would feel the same way. She was a “hot girl.” But because this wasn’t validated by any physical world experiences, eventually, a sense of dissonance developed. There were two people, not one: a hot girl and her physical world self. The whole thing was confusing—she was feeling herself split,..." Do you know what else causes this split? Aging! I'm almost 60 and I still see myself internally (not in the mirror) as 30 and cute. I'm always surprised in the real world when I'm reacted to like an old person.
i really don't want to go there but demonic possession is another paradigm for this. The man with a Legion demon in the Gospel of Mark was obviously abused by his community since they were so bothered that Jesus healed him.
DID might not be made up, but the the fanfic universe which informs new recruits seems so. The rules and jargon that govern this condition create a guidebook for people who, for whatever reason (trauma, perceived trauma, desired trauma, boredom, idleness, aesthetics, whatever) are drawn to it. I guess that's fine. We all have our interests. And in-groups have their rules. But as an outsider to this niche internet community, I'll say that it reads as badly written cause-and-effect fiction.
DID/multiplicity is interesting, because it's the clearest case of "there's a real underlying 'valid' thing, but the psychatric concept isn't it" that there is. People tend to talk about it through a dichotomy of "real DID" and "fakers", which is arguably backwards. "Real DID" is the sketchiest psych-abuse nightmare there is -- to this day, you barely have to look at all to see the whole "Satanic ritual abuse" complex underneath -- but people are *definitely* able to split up their self-image, and depending what kind of person you are, it might not even be hard! Because people prior so strongly that the "mental illness/diagnosis" form of a weird experience is the "real" or "legitimate" form, though, "DID" becomes the Real kind and other forms of multiple-self-experience the fake one. I think this attitude is greatly detrimental for a lot of reasons -- it makes it difficult to talk about unusual mental states in all their pros and cons, and it incentivizes people to see themselves through negative and disordered lenses for "validity".
"When she logged on, she was desired—and sexy!—and it began to shape her self-perception. Alone at home, she would feel the same way. She was a “hot girl.” But because this wasn’t validated by any physical world experiences, eventually, a sense of dissonance developed. There were two people, not one: a hot girl and her physical world self. The whole thing was confusing—she was feeling herself split,..." Do you know what else causes this split? Aging! I'm almost 60 and I still see myself internally (not in the mirror) as 30 and cute. I'm always surprised in the real world when I'm reacted to like an old person.
i really don't want to go there but demonic possession is another paradigm for this. The man with a Legion demon in the Gospel of Mark was obviously abused by his community since they were so bothered that Jesus healed him.
DID might not be made up, but the the fanfic universe which informs new recruits seems so. The rules and jargon that govern this condition create a guidebook for people who, for whatever reason (trauma, perceived trauma, desired trauma, boredom, idleness, aesthetics, whatever) are drawn to it. I guess that's fine. We all have our interests. And in-groups have their rules. But as an outsider to this niche internet community, I'll say that it reads as badly written cause-and-effect fiction.
DID/multiplicity is interesting, because it's the clearest case of "there's a real underlying 'valid' thing, but the psychatric concept isn't it" that there is. People tend to talk about it through a dichotomy of "real DID" and "fakers", which is arguably backwards. "Real DID" is the sketchiest psych-abuse nightmare there is -- to this day, you barely have to look at all to see the whole "Satanic ritual abuse" complex underneath -- but people are *definitely* able to split up their self-image, and depending what kind of person you are, it might not even be hard! Because people prior so strongly that the "mental illness/diagnosis" form of a weird experience is the "real" or "legitimate" form, though, "DID" becomes the Real kind and other forms of multiple-self-experience the fake one. I think this attitude is greatly detrimental for a lot of reasons -- it makes it difficult to talk about unusual mental states in all their pros and cons, and it incentivizes people to see themselves through negative and disordered lenses for "validity".